Correspondents for Tass, the official Russian news agency, often behave more like Communist agents than reporters. But, though some U.S. newsmen suspect Tassmen, many of whom have little journalistic training, of being spies, they are rarely caught at it. (In Canada, one Tassman skipped home in 1945, just before he was named as a member of the Canadian spy ring.) Last week in The Netherlands, a Tassman was jailed on espionage charges.
As Tass correspondent in The Hague, Leo C. Pisarev, 37, was different from other foreign correspondents. He lived with two Russian Embassy families, spent much of his time cultivating...